Reforming education: The case for testing teachers

Joel Klein explains how the U.S. might reform its education system to model Finland's.

Our take: Finland's education system is often toted as one model the United States should follow as it reforms its public education system. In a column for the Atlantic, Joel Klein drills down on a few specific ways America's system would improve if it were more like Finland's — including the introduction of a teacher bar exam.

For many critics of contemporary American public education, Finland is the ideal model. It performs at the top on international tests and has a highly respected teaching corps, yet it doesn't rely on policies like test-based accountability and school choice that are the cornerstones of U.S. reform. So, the critics argue, let's change course and follow Finland.

It's facile, at best, to look to a small, largely homogenous, country, with a very different educational pedigree as a model for a nation like ours. Still, the "go- Finland" crowd is onto something: Finland long ago decided to professionalize its teaching force to the point where teaching is now viewed on a par with other highly respected, learned professions like medicine and law. Today, only the best and brightest can and do become teachers: Just one in every 10 applicants are accepted to teacher preparation programs, which culminate in both an undergraduate degree and subject-specific Master's degree. Even after such selective admissions and competitive training, if there are graduates who are not deemed ready for the classroom, they will not get appointed to the system.

Popular Comments

1. People need to start respecting
the teaching profession. I left the profession due to this issue--not just
because of a lack of respect in the classroom, but also because of a lack of
respect in the
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5:56 p.m. Jan. 11, 2013

Top comment

John Charity Spring

Back Home in Davis County, UT

Education must be reformed. That is irrefutable fact. But it must be reformed
correctly. The correct reform is not to place greater restrictions on teachers
by testing them to death. The correct reform is to give teachers freedom to
reject the left
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6:40 p.m. Jan. 11, 2013

Top comment

Pops

NORTH SALT LAKE, UT

Over my lifetime, I've seen the negative effects of the push for
"scientific" management in the business community, which consists of
reducing everything to metric and then managing those metrics. The problem is
that some of the most
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